


Better Than Expected

by Mikauzoran



Series: Productive Procrastination Prompt Giveaway [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien is a bit of a tease, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gawking, Happy Ending, Humor, Julerose (Background), Kissing, Love Confessions, Luka is frustrated, M/M, Making Out, Mutual Pining, Pining, Slightly Aged-Up (16 and 18), lukadrien
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:54:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26550220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikauzoran/pseuds/Mikauzoran
Summary: Things Luka did not anticipate happening today: jumping into the Seine, having his underwear choices critiqued by his crush, teaching Adrien to do laundry, and having his wildest dreams come true. In which Adrien shows off his skills at basketball to his own detriment and masters the art of laundry-fu as well as tonsil hockey.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Luka Couffaine
Series: Productive Procrastination Prompt Giveaway [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1922590
Comments: 18
Kudos: 182





	Better Than Expected

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Fourth_Queen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Fourth_Queen/gifts).



> Hi there! I'm Mikau. It's a pleasure to meet you and nice to see the people whom I have already met again. ^.^ Thanks for joining me for Better Than Expected.
> 
> This story came about because I was bored and asked on Tumblr for people to send in prompts for me to work on so that I could still feel productive even while procrastinating on writing Chapter Thirty-Eight of Serendipity. This is the third one I received. It's from [the-fourth-queen](https://the-fourth-queen.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr. (Thanks much for the prompt!)
> 
> Prompt: Whatever it is, whatever you do, I just want a scene where Adrien somehow ends up in the Seine and Luka takes care of him afterwards. (This may or may not include borrowing Luka's clothes!!!)
> 
> I hope you enjoy the story.

Gabriel was out of town for the week, and Adrien was availing himself of Nathalie’s relative leniency to hang out with friends like any other sixteen-year-old on summer vacation.

At present, this took the form of a two-on-two basketball game on the deck of the Liberty: the home team of the Couffaine siblings versus the visiting blondes Adrien and Rose.

Out of the four of them, Adrien was decidedly the best player. Luka could give Adrien a good workout in a head-to-head, but, in a group setting, he was content to play a friendly game with no real attachment to the outcome. Juleka was only playing because Rose had made her, and while Rose was extremely competitive, she lacked anything one could come close to calling “technique” or “ability”.

Therefore, the catastrophe surprised no one.

Luka had the ball, but Adrien was covering him aggressively, making it impossible for Luka to even attempt a shot. Instead, he passed under his left arm to Juleka behind him.

Juleka, apathetic but not unskilled, caught the pass and dribbled leisurely closer to the hoop while Luka ran interference on Adrien.

Rose let out a valiant war cry and rushed Juleka who let her girlfriend steal the ball without resistance.

Rose whooped triumphantly, clumsily bouncing the ball nearer the hoop.

Juleka walked over to Rose and made a half-hearted show of waving her hands above her head in an approximation of “blocking”.

Rose held the ball at chest level and scrunched her face up into a pout. “No fair, Juju. You’re too tall.”

Juleka obligingly squatted, arms still waving back and forth like seaweed in the ocean tide. “Better?”

Rose smiled appreciatively. “Yes. Thank you.”

Meanwhile, the boys were engaged in a tango-like back and forth as Adrien tried to break loose to assist Rose. Luka matched him step for step, keeping Adrien on the outer edge of the court.

Rose narrowed her eyes, analyzing her target. She prepared to shoot, but Juleka’s arms kept getting in the way. Rose sidestepped, but Juleka followed, squatting but still undeniably keeping Rose from getting a clean shot.

Rose pursed her lips, furrowed her brow in displeasure, and then turned to check her teammate’s position.

“Adrien!” she called, hurling the ball into empty space with all of her might.

Luka watched as the ball began on its trajectory, too high and well wide of their current position, obviously destined to go overboard and be lost to the Seine.

“You’re not going to get that,” he declared matter-of-factly.

“Watch me,” Adrien chuckled, smirking and winking as he took off like a shot.

“Adrien, let it go!” Luka shouted after him to no avail.

It all happened in seconds.

Adrien used a deckchair as a ramp to launch himself into the air, snatching the ball, aiming, and making an impressive shot without the benefit of the backboard.

“Wow,” Juleka breathed, pushing her fringe out of the way to gawk as Rose trilled with joy at her team taking the lead.

Their awe quickly turned to horror, however, as, in the same breath, they realized that Adrien had overshot his jump and was fast falling to the river below.

Luka was already in motion even before Adrien disappeared from sight. “Rose, get towels. Juleka, standby to call paramedics,” he barked, grabbing the lifesaver that had been propped up against the deckchair and diving over the side of the ship after Adrien.

Meanwhile, Adrien fell gracelessly into the Seine, landing with a substantial splash. Thankfully, he had the presence of mind to close his eyes and hold his breath before he went under, preventing him from swallowing any of the dirty river water.

He kicked his way up to the surface and drew in a deep breath, looking around in an attempt to reorient himself.

Luka swam over, towing the life preserver.

“Oh, Orpheus,” Adrien chuckled, grabbing on even as he continued to tread water. “I’m so sorry. You didn’t have to jump in after me. _Thank you_.”

Luka shrugged, smiling to see Adrien unharmed. “I wasn’t certain how strong a swimmer you were.”

“Fair to middling maybe?” Adrien estimated. “We have an Olympic-sized pool on one of the basement levels, and I had lessons when I was younger. Unfortunately, I’ve become a little adverse to water these past few years, so I’m a little out of practice.”

“Chat tendencies?” Luka guessed, and Adrien nodded.

“Think you can swim to shore, or do you want me to tow you in?” Luka offered. “I take it from your conversational attitude that you’re not hurt?”

“I’m good,” Adrien assured a bit of a blush coming to his cheeks. “The landing was a little rough, but no worse than doing a belly flop off a high dive. I can swim.”

“Okay. Good,” Luka sighed in relief, his smile gaining strength. “Let’s get out of here, then. This water is gross.”

“Agreed.” Adrien readily seconded the motion, and they made their way to dry land, climbing up the embankment onto the pavement and re-boarding the Liberty.

“Do I need to call the paramedics?” Juleka inquired, holding her phone up at the ready.

Adrien grimaced. “No need. The only thing hurt is my pride. Thanks, Juleka.”

“That was a wicked awesome shot, though,” Rose piped up, handing Adrien and Luka each one towel to start with from her heaping armful.

“Except for the fact that you probably would have broken your collarbone in the landing if you hadn’t gone overboard,” Luka sighed, rifling through his hair with the provided towel. “Other than that, it was epic.”

Adrien’s grimace warmed into a sheepish smile. “What can I say? I think my cat-like reflexes work faster than the logic center of my brain.”

Luka shook his head, taking another towel from Rose with a quick thanks and draping it over Adrien’s shoulders. “Still. Promise you’ll be more careful in the future?”

Adrien looked down at the growing puddle his sopping clothes were creating on the deck and nodded, suitably chastened. “Sorry.”

“Hey.” Luka tipped Adrien’s chin up so that green eyes met blue. “You’re not in trouble. No one’s mad at you, Perfect Fifth, just worried…. But you did look really cool making that shot.”

Luka gave him an encouraging smile, and Adrien’s rebuked expression slowly brightened into a grin.

“Yeah?” he pressed for additional praise.

Luka nodded, willingly giving it to him. “Yeah, definitely. Your fans would have swooned if they’d seen it. You were amazing.”

Adrien wanted to ask if Luka had swooned at all, but he was afraid of getting a negative response.

“Now,” Luka announced, ruffling Adrien’s hair. “Let’s get cleaned up. I don’t even want to think about what’s in that water.”

Adrien winced, trying to keep the disgusting mental images at bay.

They toweled off to the best of their ability and wrung out what water they could with their clothes still on. They slipped off their shoes so as not to track the wet through the rest of the houseboat, sopped up the existing puddles, and made their way down to Luka’s room.

“You can use the shower in here,” Luka offered, motioning to the adjoining bathroom where Juleka’s room had been before the renovations. “I’ll go use the communal shower. We’ll throw your clothes in the wash after we’re both clean.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Adrien nodded, peeling off his shirt.

Luka found himself staring, entranced like a fly hypnotized by a bug zapper.

It wasn’t the first or even the twentieth time he’d seen Adrien shirtless, but something about the act of Adrien stripping off the soaking clothing was mesmerizing.

Adrien started to unzip his cargo shorts, and Luka gulped, thoughts instantly going places they had no business being.

The shorts hit the floor, and Luka’s mind went blank.

Adrien looked up “Can I…” and saw the visibly shaken state Luka was in. “…borrow some clothes to change into?”

Luka’s tight, wet pants hid nothing.

Adrien smiled innocently, playing oblivious. “Or, I mean, I guess I can just lounge around in a towel. I don’t really care, if you guys don’t.”

Luka snapped back to himself, looking away with a furious blush. “Right. Sorry. Clothes. Of course you can borrow…”

He went over to his closet and pulled out a snug black [shirt](https://www.reddit.com/r/pinkfloyd/comments/1mlda8/can_anyone_tell_me_where_this_is_from_saw_it_on_a/) with the album insert art of Lake Mono from Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here on it. He fetched a suitably distressed, dark-wash pair of jeans, figuring that they’d probably fit Adrien since Adrien’s hips weren’t as wide as Luka’s and Luka wore his jeans a little tight. He grabbed a pair of socks from his dresser and then paused.

“Um…” He pointedly didn’t look at Adrien who currently resembled some radiant river [naiad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naiad) from Greek mythology as he stood in the middle of Luka’s room in his clingy, wet boxers, beads of water rolling seductively down his abs.

Luka took a deep breath. “Did you want to borrow a pair of boxers or…?”

He couldn’t decide which would make his brain crash harder: Adrien wearing Luka’s boxers or Adrien wearing Luka’s pants without boxers.

“I’ll borrow a pair, if you don’t mind,” Adrien responded breezily, as if this weren’t a hormone-agitating experience. “May I pick?”

“Uh…sure.” Luka stepped out of the way so that Adrien could look through the stack. He mentally thanked whatever deity was looking out for him that he had neatly folded his boxers last laundry day when he was feeling especially organized.

Then the reality of Adrien freaking Agreste, supermodel (registered trademark) going through and evaluating Luka’s underwear choices set in, and Luka was mortified.

He had some embarrassing prints on his boxers. Like, who actually had boxers with hearts on them? Luka did. Granted, the majority of them were various plaids, but there was this one pair with handprints in suggestive places and another one with rubber ducks and a third with cartoon reindeer.

He prayed that Adrien didn’t see the ones with [Gloomy Bear](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mori_Chack) that Juleka had gotten him. They were a kind of morbid inside joke that would make him sound psychotic if he had to explain.

Luka thought that the ones with My Little Pony’s [Rainbow Dash](https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Rainbow_Dash) would be the most embarrassing…until Adrien pulled out the Chat Noir-themed boxers.

“I…forgot I had those,” Luka groaned.

He wanted to die.

“I love them,” Adrien laughed, holding the boxers up to inspect. “It’s between these, Gloomy Bear, Rainbow Dash, or the Hufflepuff ones. What do you think?”

“I want to die,” Luka confessed. “If I had known that you would one day be looking through my boxers, I would have only ever bought solid colors and plaids.”

Adrien rolled his eyes, folding the Chat Noir boxers back up. “Oh, come on. It’s not that bad. I _like_ your boxers. Underwear is supposed to be fun. I mean, no one else ever sees it, so why shouldn’t you have cool patterns? If I got to pick my own clothes, I’d definitely have whacky boxers, so don’t die of embarrassment on me.”

“If you say so,” Luka sighed, handing over the stack of clothes he’d gathered.

Adrien grinned, letting his hands linger on Luka’s much longer than necessary as he took the change of clothes. “I do say so.” With a wink, he turned and headed for the bathroom.

Luka, despite himself, gazed longingly after him, noting how beautifully Adrien’s wet boxers hugged the curves of his firm butt as he sauntered away.

The bathroom door closed, and Luka groaned softly, gathering clothes to change into himself and then heading out into the hall, making his way to the communal bathroom.

Juleka poked her head out of Rose’s room. “Everything okay? I heard your bedroom door slam.”

Luka grimaced. “Sorry. My head’s not on right. I didn’t mean to shut it so hard.”

Rose peeked out around Juleka. “Did you guys kiss yet?”

Luka’s grimace transformed into a glare. “Rose, I love you, but the _straight_ guy I’m in love with just stripped to his boxers in front of me and is currently naked in my shower. I’m extremely frustrated right now and not in the mood for your shipping,” he informed tersely.

Rose winced, muttering a penitent, “Sorry” as she slipped back into her room.

Juleka gave her brother a pained, sympathetic look. “Hang in there, Big Bro.”

“Thanks,” he sighed, shoulders slumping. “Sorry, Rose!” he called out as he turned and headed into the bathroom to compose himself.

When Luka returned to his room, he found Adrien freaking Agreste, supermodel (registered trademark), in his pants.

 _“Yes, please,”_ Luka’s brain whimpered.

“Hey,” Adrien grinned, making Luka’s heart _ache_ with longing. He set down the guitar he’d been fiddling with and hopped off of Luka’s bed.

“Hey.” Luka somehow managed to sound smooth, even though he was only running on a handful of braincells.

“Have a nice shower?” Adrien asked conversationally, his innocent smile striking Luka to the core.

Luka’s whole body went toasty lobster red. “Um…yeah. It was…uh…a good shower,” he replied, hoping he didn’t sound as guilty as he felt. He knew it was wrong to fantasize about an unsuspecting friend the way he did Adrien, but…

“That’s good. I had a good shower too. Thanks again for letting me use it and borrow clothes,” Adrien carried on as if not noticing how flustered he was making Luka.

“Yeah. Sure. You can borrow my shower or clothes whenever,” Luka offered and then mentally kicked himself because what sane person said things like that?

But Adrien just chuckled and kept smiling. “Thanks. Don’t be surprised if I take you up on that offer and your hoodies start going missing.”

Luka burst out laughing, loving Adrien even more for his uncanny ability to roll with whatever nonsense came out of Luka’s mouth. “I honestly don’t mind.”

He liked the idea of Adrien wearing his clothes and could very well get used to the blonde with a punk rock vibe.

“I have my eye on your [Amadeus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeus_\(film\)) hoodie,” Adrien confessed. “…So…were we going to do laundry now?”

It took Luka’s horny brain a beat to determine that Adrien was not speaking of “doing laundry together” euphemistically and to remember that Adrien’s clothes were still disgusting, crumpled heaps of river water in need of washing.

He literally smacked himself in the forehead. “Right. Yes. Sorry. I don’t know where my head’s at. Come with me.”

Adrien obediently followed Luka like a little duckling into the main cabin and through the door next to the fridge into the combination pantry-laundry area.

Luka pulled the detergent off of the shelf to the right of the door and set it down on top of the washing machine. “I’m not sure if designer clothes get washed like real-people clothes, but this is the only detergent we have. It should probably be okay if we run it on the hand-wash gentle cycle, don’t you think?”

Adrien looked at the assortment of knobs and buttons on the apparatus blankly. “Uh…I mean…” He bit his lip, toes curling and uncurling as he contemplated the machine.

Picking up on Adrien’s anxiety, Luka mentally smacked himself for what felt like the dozenth time that hour. “I’m sorry. No one’s ever bothered to teach you how to do laundry, have they?” he asked gently, rightly putting the blame on the adults in Adrien’s life so that he wouldn’t feel ashamed at his ignorance.

Adrien shook his head, a small embarrassed gesture. “No…. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a washing machine in person before. Maybe the industrial ones at Le Grand Paris when I used to play hide and seek with Chloé at the hotel when we were little, but I’ve never used one before.”

Luka gave Adrien’s still-damp hair an affectionate ruffle and smiled encouragingly. “No worries. It’s just a matter of turning the dials to the right settings for the amount and type of clothing you want to wash. I bet you’d get the hang of it easily. Wanna learn?”

Adrien nodded eagerly, beaming up at Luka. “Thank you for never making me feel like an idiot.”

Luka shrugged. “You’re _not_ an idiot, and I will fight anyone who ever makes you feel bad about yourself just because you haven’t had the same opportunities to learn practical life skills as other people.”

“My hero,” Adrien chuckled, bumping Luka’s arm with his own. “Okay. Instruct me in the art of laundry-fu, Master. I’m ready to learn.”

A quick call was placed to Nathalie to inquire about designer clothing care methods, and she sent a car to pick up the wet garments so that they could be cared for properly by the household staff.

Instead, Luka let Adrien train by washing some of Luka’s dirty clothes. He showed Adrien the tags on the clothing and explained the [mystic symbols](https://www.whirlpool.com/blog/washers-and-dryers/washer-care-symbol-guide.html) that told those initiated into the cult of laundry-fu which washing setting and what water temperature to use and how to dry, how to iron, and whether to dry clean a garment. He pointed out what the different buttons and dials on the machine were for, explained when and how to use bleach and fabric softener, and helped Adrien measure and add detergent to the washer.

By the end, Adrien was feeling a little overwhelmed with new information but relatively confident that he could figure it out if he needed to with the help of Google.

“Thank you,” Adrien repeated for the sixth time, a proud smile adorning his lips. “I don’t think you truly understand how much it means to me when you take the time to patiently explain things that other people learned years ago to me.”

“You’re very welcome,” Luka assured kindly. “And I think I do understand it somewhat. It makes you feel good about yourself when you learn a skill. You don’t get that self-satisfaction much outside of akuma attacks, so it means a lot to feel like you accomplished something and are one step closer to catching up with other people your age.”

Adrien laughed breathily, tipping his head to the side. “How do you see through me so easily? I always feel like I’m made of glass when I’m with you.”

Luka raised and dropped his shoulders in a relaxed shrug. “I don’t know. I just kind of get you, I guess.”

“You get me completely,” Adrien agreed, stepping in and pressing his lips to Luka’s.

Luka gave a start, pulling away in surprise, eyes wide.

Adrien backed away, hands up placatingly as he attempted damage control. “I am so sorry! I totally read the situation wrong, and I’m sorry. I know you’re bi, and you’ve been looking at me like you’re starving and I’m a five-course meal all day, so I thought that meant—”

Luka cut Adrien off with a searing kiss, crushing Adrien to him as his hands roamed Adrien’s back, fingers tangling in his hair.

After Adrien’s confusion subsided, he voraciously launched himself into the kiss until they were an artless conglomeration of hands and lips and fire.

Adrien somehow ended up sitting on top of the dryer, his legs wrapped around Luka like vines. He paused, pulling back as rational thought returned to him.

“Wait,” he panted, a puzzled frown taking form on his brow.

“Hn?” Luka grunted, looking hazily up at Adrien with pupils blown so wide his eyes were almost entirely black with only small rims of icy blue.

“Why are we making out?” Adrien had to wonder as fear sank in. “Is this, like, a lust-slash-friends with benefits thing where we kiss but nothing ever comes of it? Because I’m in love with you, and I don’t want to get hurt, so if I need to lower my expectations, I need to know now,” Adrien explained in a flash flood of words. “What exactly do you want from this?”

Luka reached up and cupped Adrien’s cheek lovingly as he confessed, “I want to marry you.”

Adrien’s eyes and mouth widened into matching ‘o’s of surprised delight, and his already flushed face reddened further.

Suddenly, it occurred to Luka that proposing marriage before they even started dating might be rushing things.

“Sorry,” he quickly apologized, ripping the reigns of control back from his hormones. “Am I coming on too strong? I must sound crazy. I mean, you’re only sixteen.”

“No, no,” Adrien assured, beaming brightly. “Maybe some people would think so, but it sounds like you and I are on the same page…if you’re willing to wait at least two years…maybe six, if we wait until we’re both out of university.”

“You’re worth waiting for,” Luka chuckled, leaning back in to nuzzle Adrien’s throat. “Until then…be my boyfriend?”

“I’d love that,” Adrien hummed happily, taking Luka’s face in his hands and gently pressing his lips to Luka’s.

The

End

**Author's Note:**

> How was that? Did you like it? This was a fun prompt. I feel really bad for making Luka so frustrated throughout, though. ^.^;
> 
> Did you have a favourite part? I really liked the basketball game, especially the part between Juleka and Rose. I hope you thought that was amusing. ^.^; I don’t really write a lot of “action” sequences like that, so that part was a little different for me. Could you visualize what Luka, Adrien, Rose, and Juleka were doing during the basketball scene? 
> 
> An Aside: Did anyone ever notice the basketball hoop on the front mast of the Liberty? Has anyone noticed the ping-pong table on the upper deck at the back of the ship? There are so many features of that ship that I want to include in stories. ^.^
> 
> Anyway. Thank you very much for reading. I hope you enjoyed the story. Take care, guys!
> 
> Come follow me on [Tumblr](https://mikauzoran.tumblr.com/).
> 
> References:  
> Pink Floyd: https://www.reddit.com/r/pinkfloyd/comments/1mlda8/can_anyone_tell_me_where_this_is_from_saw_it_on_a/  
> Naiad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naiad  
> Gloomy Bear: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mori_Chack  
> Rainbow Dash: https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Rainbow_Dash  
> Amadeus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeus_(film)  
> Laundry Symbols: https://www.whirlpool.com/blog/washers-and-dryers/washer-care-symbol-guide.html


End file.
